Vikings guard Alex Boone praised the toughness of quarterback Sam Bradford in the aftermath of Sunday’s victory over the Packers. Adding to Boone’s impression of Bradford’s toughness is Boone’s impression of his quarterback’s slender physique.
“When you’re looking at him you’re like, ‘Where’s the rest of him?’” Boone said Tuesday on PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio and NBCSN. “He seems so much bigger on TV. But he’s a tough kid, tough, tough kid, and that’s the thing I love about him the most. Not that he’s a gunslinger, that he can put the ball where he wants to when he has to, but the fact that he’s just so tough and resilient. He stands in there and then he gets excited when something big happens, he gets really excited and that’s what makes this team so fun.”
Bradford’s toughness is being tested because he’s being hit, a lot. And he’s being hit a lot because the offensive line isn’t keeping that from happening. So what does Boone think about the criticism of the play of the offensive line?
“We watched [the film] yesterday and a lot of that criticism is right and it’s fair and we understand that,” Boone said. “We’ve got to pick our game up. Obviously the run game is completely unacceptable and I know people say a lot of things but at the end of the day it falls on the offensive line to always make it go. No matter what happens you always got to make the run game go. That’s gonna be a challenge this week against a good, good defense. Pass-wise, obviously, protection always falls on the offensive line and that’s another thing we kind of dwindled a little bit last week. We’ve got to pick that up big time this week.”
How specifically does that happen?
“I think the one thing you do is you go back and watch the film of the game that just happened and you say, ‘You know what? Listen, these are simple fixes.’ These are elementary problems. Let’s not let this linger. Let’s not make this a bigger problem than it has to be. We know what we did wrong. We know what we can clean up. Let’s go out and let’s practice against it. You know that’s another thing; Wednesday’s practice is so important. You’ve got to go out and you’ve got to be great on Wednesday. You’ve got to practice great and you’ve got to have the scout team coming at you tough and I think that’s going to be the big key this week.”
It won’t be easy; the Vikings face the Panthers in Carolina. They have a potent defense, especially along the defensive line. It makes the preparation even more challenging and important, as the Vikings try to get to 3-0 with what would be an upset win over Cam Newton, Luke Kuechly, and company.